A glossary rule tells the translator how to handle one term: leave it alone, or always translate it the same way. Rules apply to every page on the project, including pages translated later, so you fix a term once instead of correcting each occurrence by hand.
This page covers what a rule is and how to reach the screen. Each thing you can do with a rule has its own page, linked at the bottom.
When you want one
Three situations account for almost every glossary rule.
A name is coming back translated. Your brand, a product line, a person's name. The translator has no way to know that “Ember” is a company rather than a glowing coal. See Keep a term untranslated.
A term is translated inconsistently. The same word arrives as three different words across your pages, and you want one of them. See Force a specific translation.
A whole family of codes needs protecting. Product codes, order references, hashtags: thousands of values sharing one shape, which you cannot list individually. See Pattern matching.
What a rule is made of
Open Add Rule on the Glossary screen and the drawer asks two independent questions.
What to do with the term:
- Keep as is never translates it.
- Translate always uses the translation you supply.
Match how the term is found:
- Exact term matches that text and nothing else.
- Pattern matches a family of terms, like every product code beginning with
STK.
Both questions are answered on every rule, and any combination is valid. A pattern that keeps every product code untranslated is one rule. An exact term with a fixed French translation is another.
The rest of the drawer sets when the rule applies: which language, whether casing matters, and whether it covers one project or the whole workspace. See Rule scope and targeting.
Before you start
Glossary rules need a paid plan. On a free project the Glossary screen shows an upgrade prompt instead of the rules list, and no rule is applied when pages are translated.
The project needs at least one enabled target language. Until then the screen shows No Active Languages, and the Language field only ever lists the languages enabled on this project.
Not everyone can change rules. Workspace admins and editors can add and edit them. Only admins can delete them. Members see the list but cannot change it. See Roles and permissions.
Limits
- 500 rules per workspace, counted across every project plus workspace-wide rules.
- 50 of those can be pattern rules. A pattern costs more to evaluate on every page view than an exact term, so it is capped separately.
- 200 characters per term.
- One language per rule, or all languages at once.
Everything you can do with a rule
- Keep a term untranslated
- Force a specific translation
- Pattern matching
- Rule scope and targeting
- How rules are applied
- Glossary rules are not working